Written by Michelle Kretzer
In a rousing victory for animals, a county planning commission in the U.K. has denied a notorious chicken factory farm a spot within its borders.
Harrison Farms had asked the Shropshire Council for permission to build an intensive factory farm in which 330,000 chickens at a time would be tightly crammed into dark sheds until the time came to slaughter them. But after hearing from PETA U.K. and almost 5,000 of PETA U.K.'s members and supporters, the council denied the application.
The animal advocates explained to the council how factory farms dose chickens with massive amounts of antibiotics to keep them alive in the cramped, filthy conditions and to make them grow so large so fast that many of them become crippled under their own weight or experience organ failure. They also relayed how the farms cut off the ends of chickens' sensitive beaks with a searing-hot blade to stop the frustrated birds from pecking at each other and how the only time the chickens see grass or feel the warmth of the sun is when they are being shipped to the slaughterhouse to have their throats slashed and be dunked in tanks of scalding-hot water. They also gave the council information on how factory farms are among the main contributors to climate change.
Congratulations to everyone who wrote in!
Written by Alisa Mullins
Last week, PETA Germany released the findings of its undercover investigation of three "free-range" egg farms. What the group found was pretty much the same kind of horror story that we've had in the U.S. and the U.K.: Far from the idyllic barnyards that people might associate with "humanely raised" or "free-range" eggs, the investigators for PETA Germany found thousands of hens confined to filthy, windowless sheds, just as chickens on "ordinary" factory farms are. The investigators videotaped dead and dying chickens among the living. Many birds were crawling with parasites, were missing most of their feathers, and had large sores all over their bodies, some of which oozed pus. In Germany, eggs labeled "bio " (organic and "humane") are supposed to come from chickens with access to the outdoors, but PETA Germany's investigators showed that the birds' access to the outdoors was often impeded or blocked, sometimes by live electrical wires!
On one farm, the investigators found exposed 15,000-volt electrical wiring that was shooting sparks. The hot wiring effectively confined birds to one section of the barn. In February, a neighboring barn with similar defective wiring burned down, killing 19,000 birds.
In 2010, PETA Germany caught another farm violating Germany's "bio" seal. The farmer now produces "free-range" eggs—the standards for which are less strict than those for the "bio" seal —but PETA Germany's most recent investigation documented apparent violations of those standards as well. The farmer has failed to provide the more than 9,000 chickens confined to his barns with minimum required space.
The 'Free-Range' Scam
"Free-range," "humanely raised," and "certified" labels in the U.S. can also be deceptive. The U.S. Department of Agriculture requires that "free-range" animals have access to outdoor areas, but the birds don't actually have to go outside, and some are too afraid to or are barred by impediments. United Egg Producers uses a label that reads, "United Egg Producers Certified," but this program is not regulated or enforced, and investigations have shown that companies using this label often do not treat chickens any differently than conventional factory farms do.
In fact, most "free-range" hens live in the same miserable, filthy factory farm conditions that "broiler" chickens (raised for their flesh) do. And like other factory-farmed hens, free-range hens are killed when their egg production begins to wane, at about 2 years of age.
Want to help hens? Stop eating eggs altogether. It's not hard. Just opt for egg replacers in baked goods and whip up some tasty, heart-healthy scrambled tofu for breakfast. For more hen-friendly cooking ideas, visit PETA.org/Living.
Written by Jeff Mackey
PETA wants to give parties on both sides of the debate over Arizona's new law banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy some other food for thought as we get set to display a new billboard in the Phoenix area. We think that everyone should be able to agree about death on factory farms and beyond:
© iStockphoto.com/Sascha Burkard
Billions of chickens are killed for food every year in the U.S. when they are only 6 to 7 weeks old, and most of the pigs and turkeys killed for food are less than 1 year old. Animals killed for food feel pain when they are stunned, have their throats cut, or are scalded to death or dismembered while they're still conscious.
Pro-life? You can save lives by eating vegan foods. Pro-choice? Choose meals that are better for animals, your health, and our environment. Makes sense!
Chick-fil-A, the house of the homophobic waffle fries, wants homosexual people just to accept not having equal rights and chickens just to accept having their throats slashed and being scalded to death.
But a flock of protesters crashed Chick-fil-A's Appreciation Day to show that they don't appreciate the fast-food chain's efforts to keep people in the closet and chickens in the factory farm shed:
The protesters made their voices heard loud and clear: All living beings deserve respect.
Have you ever gotten that "caged animal" feeling? Now everyone who uses the elevator at PETA's Norfolk, Virginia office, and PETA's office in Los Angeles, the Bob Barker Building, will have it, thanks to our new elevator experience that gives visitors the feeling of being chickens inside a battery cage on an egg factory farm.
Surrounded by photos of cage bars and suffering chickens, the rider can read the writing on the wall: "Imagine being trapped in this elevator for life with no room to turn around. That's how a caged hen feels. Please, for chickens' sake, join us by going vegan."
Our hope is that as the elevator begins to move, visitors will be moved to think about the fact that each hen on an egg farm is shoved into a cage with five to 11 other hens and not enough room even to spread her wings. Part of her beak, filled with nerve endings, will be cut off with a searing-hot blade. When her egg production wanes, she'll be violently killed.
Hopefully, after their elevator ride, visitors who still eat eggs will choose to take the steps … the steps leading to a more compassionate lifestyle.
Be a friend to hens and tweet this photo or post it to Facebook.
We've all seen the awesome YouTube videos of cows who were being lovey-dovey with dogs, cats, and all sorts of other animals. So it's not surprising that a cow joined her chicken buddy at the opening of a Chick-fil-A food truck to ask people to be chicken champions and not eat either of them:
On Cow Appreciation Day, we think the sensitive bovines' real message would be, "Luv Mor Chikins."
Here's something that you might not know about PETA: We hold stock in companies whose policies we're trying to change so that we can attend annual meetings and propose shareholder resolutions to try to push companies to stop cruel practices. McDonald's had one such meeting today, so, of course, we were there with bells on.
PETA campaigner Tracy Patton stood up and asked McDonald's executives why they continue to allow their suppliers to use an archaic slaughter method that includes slicing chickens' throats while they're still conscious and scalding them to death in defeathering tanks. She explained to the group of shareholders that an improved slaughter method called "controlled-atmosphere killing" (CAK) would eliminate the worst abuses of chickens and is already used by McDonald's suppliers in Europe and by other companies in the U.S.
The McDonald's execs hemmed and hawed and made excuses, but they and the shareholders got the message that PETA isn't going to let McDonald's cruel slaughter of hundreds of millions of chickens each year be swept under the rug.
Make sure that McDonald's gets the message from you, too. E-mail President Don Thompson, and demand that the chain switch to CAK.
PETA made sure that attendees at this week's annual meeting of KFC's parent company, Yum! Brands, in Louisville, Kentucky, would have something to chew on besides their cruelly obtained drumsticks and wings.
As shareholders of Yum! Brands stock, PETA can attend the company's annual meeting and ask a question during the Q&A. So Yum! bigwigs and stockholders got an earful from PETA when it detailed how chickens used to supply KFC restaurants spend their entire short lives mired in their own waste in cramped filthy sheds on factory farms, only to be hung upside down, sustain broken wings and legs, and often end up scalded to death in slaughterhouse defeathering tanks. PETA's representative then asked when the company will make the simple, badly needed changes that were recommended by KFC's own animal welfare advisers (who understandably resigned in frustration).
Join Pink, Sir Paul McCartney, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Black Eyed Peas, and many others in telling KFC to do right by chickens.
Last year, PETA and other animal advocates successfully defeated "ag gag" bills in Florida, New York, Minnesota, and Iowa. Now, another "ag gag" bill that would make it illegal to shoot video on a factory farm has just passed in the House of Representatives in Utah. And once again, we're fighting back against this unconstitutional measure.
Flush from her success in her home state of Iowa, Raising Hope star and longtime animal advocate Cloris Leachman penned a letter to Utah lawmakers on PETA's behalf urging them not to block people from gathering the evidence needed to prosecute animal abusers
I hope that Utah legislators recognize that with consumer demand for better treatment of animals, they must work to enforce and strengthen laws, not penalize those trying to expose cruel and illegal practices. Citizens' right to document cruelty to animals—wherever it occurs—is crucial in helping local, state, and federal officials enforce anti-cruelty laws.
Every PETA undercover investigation of factory farms has yielded evidence that workers were abusing animals. We recorded workers who sexually assaulted a pig with a cane, stomped on a turkey's head until her skull exploded, and spit tobacco into chickens' eyes and mouth. This indisputable proof of abuse is key to securing historic charges against and convictions of such abusers on cruelty-to-animals charges.
Utah residents, please ask your senators to vote against this bill and to continue to allow people to expose blatant cruelty to animals.
A lot has been happening this week at PETA: victories, anniversaries, and celebrations! We're after CareerBuilder, we stopped shipments of monkeys to laboratories, and we've done much more! Check out the latest news and victories:
What a busy week it's been in the PETAsphere! Just in case you missed any of the big news, we've got you covered. Follow us on Tumblr for future news about animal rights, vegan living, and where in the world the PETA campaigners are now.
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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